Finance Elite Awards 2018

12 US BUSINESS NEWS / 2018 Finance Elite Awards , Best Fintech Solutions Provider - USA Halcyon Financial Technology (HalcyonFT) is an Information Technology services firm focused entirely on the financial services industry. Founder Rodric O’Connor tells us more about the firmand the range of solutions it provides in this vital market. HalcyonFT was formed in 2010 by industry veteran Rodric O’Connor to address a gap in the market serving small to mid-size financial services firms with best practice IT support. HalcyonFT’s team of experienced IT professionals brings decades of experience in the financial services industry and a proven history of working together at financial services firms in key IT roles. As HalcyonFT exclusively serves the financial industry, its team has a comprehensive understanding of the unique developments, as well as the trends, challenges, and high expectations of investment firms. Rodric is proud of the firm’s specialisation and explores how this has helped it to achieve the success it enjoys today. “Here at HalcyonFT, we provide tailored Information Technology services for Private Equity, Hedge Funds, and investment management firms. We focus exclusively on this vertical. As a result of this specialisation, we have had the privilege of working with some of the leaders in the financial industry. In aggregate, our clients manage in excess of $170 billion of investments. The SEC and/or FINRA regulate all of our clients. We currently provide service in the major US domestic financial metropolitan areas with offices in San Francisco, New York and Newport Beach.” Despite starting in inauspicious times for the financial industry, HalcyonFT has flourished thanks to its commitment to excellence and innovative approach, as Rodric highlights. “Over the last eight years HalcyonFT has grown and been profitable, because we believe that if you deliver a high-quality service there will always be a market for it. In an economic downturn the type and justification of our projects changes. We help our clients reduce their costs by changing their technology infrastructure. Project ROI becomes more important in the decision-making process. The wonderful thing about technology is that it is always changing and providing ways to make our clients more efficient. It is our job to identify those opportunities and communicate them to our clients.” Operating in such a fast paced and tightly regulated industry, HalcyonFT has to work hard to remain at the forefront of emerging developments and ensure that it is continually adapting to meet the needs of its clients. Thanks to his experience in the industry, Rodric understands his clients’ needs in this turbulent market and is able to help guide them through the changes they are currently experiencing. He provides us with a fascinating overview of the current financial market and the challenges his clients are facing, whilst exploring how his firm is helping them to overcome them. “Within the financial market currently, cybersecurity is getting more and more important, as executive teams are starting to understand that it is of business level importance and not just something IT has to worry about. As such, we are starting to implement advanced security solutions, and help them start to think about cybersecurity from a granular and holistic level using frameworks such as NIST. “Additionally, the European GDPR regulations are affecting several of our clients. The global nature of this vertical ensures that regulations in one region impact others. Another key challenge is Blockchain, as it is my belief that this will have a major impact on the industry and the applications and architectures that we build and support. The disintermediation of the traditional exchanges and the movement to direct contracts will have a major impact to our clients in the future. I am excited to see how this will play out and everyone at HalcyonFT will be constantly searching for new ways to support our clients and ensure their continued success.” In his final comments on the future, Rodric is optimistic about the future success of HalcyonFT, as he believes its solutions will benefit an even wider range of clients over the coming years, as he is proud to conclude. “With regards to the future of HalcyonFT, I am keen to expand my business outside of our current US market, as I believe that the model and service level that we have provide is applicable to other global financial centers. Our service product focused on the ultra-high net worth family is growing strongly, and this has great potential in other US metropolitan areas. As such, moving forward our focus will be on expansion as we seek to build upon our current success and support an even wider range of clients with our award-winning offering.” FEA18002 HalcyonFT leverages decades of experience in the financial services industry to anticipate the technology needs of new and established firms. The Path to Innovative Technology